Married for His Secret Heir

He realized that from this day forward, he would have not one but two people to worry about—to protect. He knew just how unpredictable life could be, and he couldn’t imagine living through another loss. His heart just couldn’t take it.

And it didn’t help that Elena was already a darling of the paparazzi. Her life was routinely on display for all the world to see—including potential stalkers.

However, his father would be thrilled to know the DiSalvo line would continue—someone to carry on the lemon grove. If there was still something to hand down. And that was Luca’s fault. He shouldn’t have let the distance between them become a yawning canyon with no footbridge to connect them.

But that problem was going to have to wait. First, he had to convince Elena to marry him. Knowing her as well as he did, she wouldn’t make it easy on him.

And so he had to make it hard for her to turn him down.

He reached for his phone. This was going to take some work, but he would make her his bride in short order. And he would claim his baby—his baby. The words sounded surreal.

Life certainly did change on the spin of a coin.

Yesterday, he’d had a firm grip on his life. And today, he and Elena were having a baby.

And somehow, some way, they were getting married.

He’d make it happen. But it was going to take a little more forethought than he’d first envisioned. And he had no time to waste.

CHAPTER TEN

SHE WAS TRAPPED.

The paparazzi was camped out on the perimeter of the palace gates like leeches, just waiting to suck the life out of her.

Elena turned away from the roving cameras of the press. She’d been hoping that their fascination with her would end quickly, but that wasn’t to be. It was open season on her life, and the reporter with the first exposé or telling photo would make a bundle.

And after speaking with Lauren Renard, Elena learned the painful truth—she’d been dropped from the fashion line. All her scheduled shoots had been canceled. Her contract was to be voided. And her name was on the lips of everyone in the know throughout Paris.

Without being spotted, Elena retreated to the royal gardens. Where she normally took solace in the serenity of the colorful blossoms and the gentle, perfumed air, today she didn’t notice any of it. Her insides were tied up in knots. What was she going to do?

Luca’s parting words kept repeating in her mind like a broken record.

Don’t do this to us—to our child.

Normally, she’d blow off such a rushed, heat-of-the-moment proposal. No one would mean such a thing. After all, it wasn’t like they were a couple. This pregnancy, it wasn’t supposed to happen. They weren’t meant to happen.

But a marriage proposal from Luca was different. He was not a man to throw around such words whether casually or in the heat of the moment. She knew him—or at least she thought she did. But everything had changed so dramatically between them since that night in Paris. Now, she questioned whether she’d ever known him at all.

Too restless to sit down, she started walking with no destination in mind. She moved past the garden gates and into the field of sunflowers. Blind to the world around her, she could only envision the what ifs and might haves that this pregnancy had brought into her world.

She moved to the cliff overlooking the sand and sea. The breeze rushed past her, combing through her hair. Despite the beauty of this particular spot with the azure-blue sky, the sunshine dancing upon the water and the sailboat in the distance bobbing with each swell, all Elena could think about was that her life had come to a fork in the road.

The decisions she was about to make were so much more enormous than when she’d had to choose between attending college here on the island or pursuing a modeling career in Paris. To a young girl of eighteen who had led a sheltered life, venturing to a big city—even one as romantic as Paris—had still been a scary idea, especially when she knew absolutely no one there.

But now she had to make a decision not only for herself, but also for her child. The road to the left was one for just her and her baby. It would be them against the world. And if she took the road to the right, she envisioned herself holding her child’s hand with Luca holding their child’s other hand. Which was the right answer for all of them?

She started to walk again. Her head pulsed with chaotic thoughts of possible scenarios for her future. Her hand pressed to her midsection, feeling a protective instinct that she’d never felt before. She might disagree with Luca on numerous things, but there was one thing they agreed on. They had to do what was right for their child.

Their child.

The words stuck in her mind. As much as she wanted to make all the decisions about this baby, she couldn’t. They’d created this tiny life together, and it was only right that they share the decisions. It was her first solid resolution, and it felt right.

And then another thought came to her: she downright refused to be dictated to by Luca or anyone else. In that moment, it didn’t matter to her one iota that Luca was an earl or that his uncle was the king. They would make decisions together—she would not bend to his will.

Elena stopped walking. Suddenly she was feeling a bit better. Her jumbled thoughts were starting to gain some clarity. Even the pounding in her head was starting to subside.

When she glanced around, she realized that she’d been drawn back to one of her childhood haunts. And it was looking none too good. The little cabin had been abandoned eons ago, but as kids, she and Luca had worked to patch up the roof with branches and leaves. They made it into their secret clubhouse.